A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 28 in the case of a 61-year-old Minocqua woman accused of stealing almost $46,000 while serving as a director of the Ascension Sacred Heart-St. Mary's Hospital Foundations.

Bloom also set a $10,000 signature bond in the case. As a condition of bond, Baltus is prohibited from going on Ascension premises unless medical treatment is necessary, the judge added.

According to a criminal complaint filed July 9, Baltus, a former Minocqua Area Chamber of Commerce (MACC) executive director, is charged with a single count of felony theft in a business setting.

While at Ascension, Baltus cashed 41 checks for almost $46,000 between January 2017 and October 2018 when she left her employment there, keeping the money for herself, the complaint alleges. According to a police report, Baltus has admitted to the thefts.

A central Wisconsin native, Baltus has served in a variety of community leadership positions during her years in the Northwoods. In addition to her roles at MACC and St. Mary's-Sacred Heart, she also served as the development director for the Howard Young Foundation from June 2014 to October 2015.

Most recently, Baltus has been employed as the foundation coordinator for Marshfield Clinic Health System Foundation.

In her interview with law enforcement, Baltus said the embezzlement stemmed at first from personal financial stresses. She had intended to pay the money back, she told law enforcement, but, even after she realized she couldn't, she just kept stealing and doing so more frequently.

The probable cause for the criminal complaint is contained in a police report by Rhinelander police officer Joshua Chiamulera, written on April 17 and supplemented on May 23.

On April 11, Chiamulera wrote, he received a report from Crowe LLC - one of the largest providers of internal audit and financial advisory services in the U.S. health care industry - concerning a theft of money from Ascension St. Mary's Hospital Foundation in Rhinelander and the Sacred Heart Hospital Foundation in Tomahawk.

Crowe had been hired by Ascension to investigate a theft of money, Chiamulera wrote. The suspect was Kimberly Baltus.

"When I received the report from Crowe LLC, I reviewed the information inside the report and found that Kimberly had possibly embezzled $46,204.95 in cash from a checking account," Chiamulera wrote. "Crowe had also identified $31,512.97 in gift card purchases that could not be tracked due to a lack of record keeping."

However, while the gift cards had not been tracked, Chiamulera wrote, Crowe's investigation determined Baltus had written checks made out to "cash," totaling $29,944.95 from the St. Mary's Foundation checking account, and $16,260 from the Sacred Heart Foundation checking account.

While the checks were made out to "cash," in each instance the check was endorsed by Baltus, Chiamulera wrote.

After viewing the report, Chiamulera wrote that he arranged an interview with Baltus, which took place on April 16. During that interview, Chiamulera advised Baltus she didn't have to talk if she didn't want to, but she said more than once she would talk.

"I told Kimberly that the topic we had to talk about could be difficult for her because what occurred was probably quite embarrassing to her," he wrote. "Kimberly started crying and said it was."

During the subsequent interview, Chiamulera said Baltus admitted to the thefts, except for one $300 check from the Sacred Heart Foundation dated July 29, 2016. That check was for a golf benefit or fundraiser, and Baltus said they needed money for making change and selling tickets for prizes.

"Kimberly said the remaining $45,904.95 was her, but she didn't realize it had gotten that far out of control," Chiamulera wrote.

Chiamulera wrote that Baltus said it all started in early 2017 when her husband became disabled from a debilitating back injury and wasn't able to work.

In the beginning, Chiamulera wrote that Baltus told him she started taking the money because it was easy to do and that she had every intention of paying it back.

From there, it snowballed.

"Kimberly said as time went on she realized that she would never be able to repay the money but admitted she began taking larger amounts of money and more frequently," he wrote. "Kimberly said she was very embarrassed that this happened and she really was a good person."

If convicted, Baltus could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

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